Writing Modern Legal English

Tirsdag 26. oktober, Juristenes Hus, Oslo.

Kurs nr: 2010276 Andre kurs/språkkurs  6 timer
Formål og innhold

Writing Modern Legal English

‘‘Too many lawyers believe that it is essential to legal English that one write as pompously as possible, using words and phrases that have long since disappeared from normal English discourse.’’
Hon. Antonin Scalia U.S. Supreme Court

A one-day seminar meant to help Norwegian lawyers adapt to the new and significant changes in the style of modern legal English.
 
Users of legal English have split into two camps over recent years; old style and new style. Old style is the legal English used by our Grandfathers: noun-heavy, lots of legal jargon and written in the passive voice. Old style is condemned by all legal writing experts. “Unbearably, maddeningly, mind-numbingly pompous.” says Mark Fisher of the BBC.

New style is defined as English as written in the modern commercial world. New style is supported by the English speaking judiciary, all the bar associations of the English speaking nations, associations whose purpose is to introduce clarity in legal writing, and influential legal writing experts such as Bryan Garner and Kenneth Adams. 
Målgruppe Kurset er rettet mot advokater og jurister for øvrig som arbeider både i privat og offentlig sektor samt innen forretningsjuss.
Program

Course contents:

• Orwell’s six rules for writing and the KISS rule
• recognising, removing or replacing tired legal clichés.
• writing in the active voice when you can
• using as few words as possible
• recognising archaic words, legal jargon and unnecessarily long words and replacing them with normal words as used in modern business English
• using verbs instead of nouns to bring dynamism to your writing
Foredragsholder

This seminar will be presented by Kevin Harris of Acorn English Consultants AB.

Kevin worked as a litigation lawyer at Tweedie and Prideaux of London between 1985 and 1997 before moving to Gothenburg and founding Acorn English Consultants in 1998, a company of language consultants specialising in business and legal English. He has taught legal English at many of Sweden’s largest law firms and also teaches for the Swedish Bar Association. Kevin wrote the course material that will be used on this seminar.
Tid og sted Tirsdag 26. oktober, Juristenes Hus, Oslo. 
Kurset starter kl. 10.00, og avsluttes kl. 17.00. Registrering fra Kl. 09.30.
Kursavgift Medlem av NJ/DNA: kr 4 000,-. Ikke medlem: kr 5 000,-. 
Kursavgiften inkluderer kursdokumentasjon, kaffe/te i pausene samt lunsj med drikke. 
Hotell

Overnatting må ordnes på egenhånd. 
Påmelding Kurskoordinator: Vibeke Skabo, tlf. 22 03 50 44, vs@jus.no